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  1. maz_beth

    The retreat...aston

    where we lived - at 49 Parliament St., Aston - opposite and a bit to the left lived a rag and bone man and his son - who invited me to see the fish pond in his back garden/yard once - it was a very long time ago (in the 60's) but the lad looked like the one in the photo, who might have been a...
  2. maz_beth

    The retreat...aston

    Hi Lyn, those photos do raise vague memories in my mind, as being near the bomb peck in the Retreat which I, and friends, used to play on. We left in mid '69 so the dates fit too.
  3. maz_beth

    The retreat...aston

    Hi Aston Lad - sorry about late response, but I have just seen this - my mom (now 84) would be very interested to learn more about her late dad (Martin Brislin of Parliament St.) who was in Highcroft, (we think due to continued effects of shellshock from serving in WW1 and at The Somme), from...
  4. maz_beth

    Ted's Hot Dog Barrow & Others

    This is my dad, John, in the early 60's. He worked at night sometimes, selling hot dogs to make extra money for us, his family, after doing his main job or when he was out of work. I remember seeing him on Colmore Row I think it was (mom must have took us up there), but I think he also did...
  5. maz_beth

    Burlington St Schools

    sorry Sylvia - I have a feeling the boy was called Michael, but obviously another one. Wish I could remember - some names are on the tip of my tongue but won't come to mind.
  6. maz_beth

    Burlington St Schools

    Burlington Street School class photo. I think it may have been about 1966 or 1967 as I think (Welsh) Mr. Stevens (teacher in the photo - Ken Barlow lookalike :D ) was my class teacher in the first year of the juniors. One of the classes in the 'new building.' He used to tip me upside down and...
  7. maz_beth

    Courtyards and yards of brum

    makes sense
  8. maz_beth

    Parliament Street Aston

    that would be brilliant So far haven't seen any with our stretch on - although I know my mom must have a photo that dad would have took with us 3 kids standing in front of the Alfred Roberts van he was driving with at that time, parked out outside our house (49). Would have been about '66 as I...
  9. maz_beth

    The retreat...aston

    yes, it's a good book, and the other one - she gives names, but can't remember if she disguises them - it's been 2 or 3 years since I read it. But it's fairly easy to work out the locations when you know Aston a bit, and the outskirts into town. You might even recognise some of the families she...
  10. maz_beth

    John Street Dale End

    thanks Mike, that's very helpful. I suppose I think of John St. (or at least New John St.) as being near the border of Aston and town (city centre), (like Staniforth St. was) as we used to walk it from Aston into town. But it must be over the border then, into the city centre - or I may be...
  11. maz_beth

    John Street Dale End

    my great-grandfather Thomas Brislin and his (widowed it seems) mom, Mary, and his wife-to-be (who was then a lodger), are on the 1871 census as at John St. - and it says 9 Court 5 House (I think). There is a 10 further down the page, so I think it is 9. But there is a 34 and a 35 in between on...
  12. maz_beth

    Staniforth Street

    I first saw that picture some years ago posted by Carl Chinn, or provided by him, on a BBC local West Mids or B'ham website, and it said it was 72 Staniforth St. - the house where the pram is - and, coincidentally, I had found out on the 1891 census that my great grandparents and their family...
  13. maz_beth

    Parliament Street Aston

    we used to live at 49 till 1969. I think my mom used to mention someone who lived at (or over?) the corner shop over the road - that would be on the corner of Upper Webster St. I think, who was in Crossroads - if I remember right - maybe Carlos (the chef) - can't remember his real name.
  14. maz_beth

    Courtyards and yards of brum

    thanks for helping everyone - sorry, have been busy again this week - including discussing this with 2 members of Ancestry who have used the pic and the one who originally supplied it. The mystery is solved - the older lady is, indeed, Bridget (Collins) Brislin - my great-grandmother - and the...
  15. maz_beth

    The retreat...aston

    Hi Sylvia, I wonder if that is the one that the midwife Dot May Dunn wrote about - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twelve-Babies-Bike-Diary-Midwife/dp/1409120104/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401630032&sr=1-2&keywords=dot+may+dunn (good book, and her other one). - as that was her patch in the 50's...
  16. maz_beth

    Courtyards and yards of brum

    thanks for that - my search wasn't finding anything. So, it's still a mystery where the two women were, whatever year it was...where that raised up courtyard was. It just really reminds me of the factory building on Summer Lane, but if it is the 1920's they weren't there then, I think - they had...
  17. maz_beth

    Courtyards and yards of brum

    thanks for posts.. they are my relatives - it was from a person on Ancestry who is descended from my great aunt Catherine who went to the u.S. - so I presumed that her English cousins had sent the picture and it was handed down...it was labelled Bridget and Mary. So I have been thinking today...
  18. maz_beth

    Phillips Street Aston

    Thanks for the welcome back - don't visit much as I end up spending hours and hours on here (like today :D ) and life is quite busy. I'm probably mixing up Phillips st and Webster st. The bookies was probably on Webster st. then as I feel fairly sure it was sort of diagonally opposite the pub...
  19. maz_beth

    Courtyards and yards of brum

    I would have thought that, except Mary did die in 1887, and, also it was the 1880's that they lived on Summer Lane. Also, the photo can be no-one else in the family, and they are definitely my ancestors. One thing that might confirm it is that I've read that poorer people weren't always that...
  20. maz_beth

    The retreat...aston

    it's strange I don't recognise it as Upper Sutton st then, as we walked up there loads on the way to the Park to collect my cousins who lived on Upper Sutton st. I don't remember the houses having front gardens, and my cousins, aunt and uncle lived in what must have been a back to back with a...
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